There may be more changes in the wind in the senior echelons of Westpac than simply the retirement of the Ted Evans as chair of the board in six months, after four-and-a-half years in the role - a decision the bank announced yesterday. Lindsay Maxsted, the former CEO in Australia of KPMG will replace him, following the annual meeting of the bank in December. Maxsted,who is also chair of Transurban and a director of BHP, joined the Westpac board in 2008.A degree of disharmony continues to be a feature of Westpac's board.This is not disharmony among the board, so much as board members discontent directed at the performance of management, principally over its inability to extract decent cost savings from the takeover of St George Bank, in late 2008.As reported in Banking Day, in September 2010, and subsequently confirmed by Westpac, integration projects identified as priorities by management in 2009 lost funding, with the bank obliged to adopt a more muted investment plan for harmonisation of key banking systems across Westpac and St George.Also as reported in Banking Day, in January 2011, and subsequently denied by Westpac, Westpac's board has become - and remains - restless over the bank's direction, with persistent talk of plans to replace Gail Kelly as chief executive.That article reported that the talk suggested the board planned to select a new CEO by the second half of 2011.With Maxsted replacing Evans, a new chair of the board will inevitably oversee a process of review and renewal of the bank's senior management ranks.The Australian today reports that Maxsted adopted a conventional line over board support for the CEO in an interview with the newspaper."Gail is an exceptional CEO and the strategy that she and the board have pursued since she came to Westpac has been right on the money," Maxsted told the newspaper."Westpac is in great shape and I'm excited about its future, but everyone knows things are going to get tougher, with regulatory and competition issues putting pressure on returns-on-equity."The Financial Review (in its Financial Services section and in its Chanticleer column) takes a similar perspective, with the latter column also suggesting that management is pushing the board to agree to (unspecified) takeovers in wealth management.